signsoflifebooks.com

It’s 1906 in Cold Sassy, Georgia. Will’s grandmother has just passed away and life will never be the same. Filled with unforgettable characters, Olive Ann Burns weaves a wonderful coming-of-age story filled with humor and tenderness. Cold Sassy is like most turn-of-the-century small southern towns. In this setting, where family relationships are strong, Will learns about the smallness of some minds, and the real meaning of love and reverence. Burns is a masterful storyteller which makes this a truly enjoyable read.

Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” In Peter Kreeft’s book, The Best Things in Life: A Contemporary Socrates Looks at Power, Pleasure, Truth, and the Good Life , Socrates visits a modern institution of higher learning, Desperate State. Resulting is a series of twelve dialogues wherein Socrates critically examines Peter Pragma, Felicia Flake, and many ideas ranging from marijuana and Santa Claus to education and sex. The Best Things in Life is witty, pithy, funny, captivating, and thoroughly enjoyable. Read it aloud or maybe with a friend. But especially read it, questioning and examining the content and the characters as you go. Socrates would have it no other way, and you shouldn’t either if you want ‘the best things in life’.

Return with us to the days when medical regulations were almost nonexistent and healing arts quackery ran wild! The roaring 20s - a time when violet rays were promised to build up your personality, electro-helmets were said to help your hair grow, and radium drinks guaranteed to renew your vigor, until they killed you.

In Charlatan: America’s Most Dangerous Huckster . . . Pope Brock takes us into the world of Dr. J. R. Brinkley, the Goat Gland Doctor of Kansas.  With the help of his wife, Brinkley bilked thousands of people out of millions of dollars with their promises of bringing virility back to the men they operated on, all the while staying one step ahead of the AMA and the federal government.

Brock’s book intertwines the events of Brinkley’s life with those of the AMA’s Morris Fishbein, the man determined to shut Brinkley down. As the story progresses, you will find yourself both intrigued by the events, as well as baffled by the possibility that so many people could be taken to the cleaners by such a group of charlatans.

These two books can save your marriage.

First, the theory.

What If God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy? This is the question Gary Thomas brings us in the subtitle of his excellent book Sacred Marriage. This is in stark contrast to the message we hear from all sides these days, even from some Christian authors. You deserve to be happy in marriage. If it’s not working for you, get out. But maybe God has a different plan. Maybe marriage is intended for your sanctification and for God’s glory. While sanctification doesn’t sound nearly as exciting as “personal fulfillment”, it turns out that submission to God’s plan is infinitely more satisfying than trying to get our own needs met.

Now the practice.

In his book The Marriage Builder Dr. Larry Crabb demonstrates a profound understanding of how men and women interact. But rather than give long tedious explanations of these theories, he gives practical advice and exercises that will help you and your mate love each other better. This is a perfect companion to Gary Thomas’ Sacred Marriage. Whereas Thomas gives us the theology of marriage, Crabb gives us the tools to make it happen. We desperately need both.
 

 

 

 

While the catchphrase “What would Jesus do?” may seem a bit clichéd by now, the fact remains that we should be asking ourselves that very question every day and in regards to every aspect of our life.  In Love Walked Among Us:  Learning to Love Like Jesus Did, Paul Miller takes a deep and loving look into the persona that is Christ – his love, his caring, and his compassion - and brings it into our modern world. How did Christ treat the sick? Those whose lifestyles were less-than-reputable? How did he comfort the sorrowful? Miller analyzes several events in the New Testament and guides the reader through the love behind Christ’s actions. Because of the lessons you learn from Christ, you may well be asking yourself what you can do for others in his name.

In Pollution and the Death of Man theologian Francis Schaeffer (along with his son-in-law Udo Middlemann in the current edition) address stewardship of creation in the context of the historic Fall of man into sin. What is environmentalism within a biblical worldview? This is the larger question addressed–contrasting a biblically informed understanding with the dominant Materialist world view.

Schaeffer writes that there are two categories of ecological sins: the sins of poor stewardship and the sins of idolizing creation in place of worshipping the creator. The Bible teaches that nature was radically changed due to the original sin of man. The bible teaches that this original environmental damage, as described in Genesis, extends beyond the borders of our planet in the places man has never been.

Many contemporary Christian books on environmentalism use the Bible to call for stewardship of creation in the context of finding common ground with environmentalist materialists. When Christian writers take this approach, they typically fail to explain the reason why things are the way they are because of the effects of original sin.

Schaeffer brings us back to the basics. This world is not the same as when God created it and said it was good. The sin of Adam changed the way nature functioned–the curse, the damage, the new ways of death in the world, radically changed the lives and behaviors of men and animals. Man’s sin introduced entropy, extinction of species, genetic degradation over time, and unnatural death to all living things–thousands of years before anyone ever littered any beach, paved over any land, or cut down any rainforest.

When we think of persecution, we usually think of the stories of the early church such as Paul’s imprisonments and John’s exile. Rarely do we consider our brothers and sisters that are facing persecution and struggle today, in the twenty-first century. In Heavenly Man, Paul Hattaway brings us the words of Brother Yun, a Chinese Christian intent on spreading the gospel message to as many of his fellow countryman as he can despite strong and often severe opposition from the Chinese government.  Yun tells of his extraordinary life, his struggles, and God’s victory. The book is filled with truth and encouragement for Christians today who are actively sharing the Word. His story opens our eyes to the real cost of discipleship and helps to put into focus the real work that needs to be done. It is a life-changing message.

Anyone who loves Paris or the piano or life will love Thad Carhart’s The Piano Shop on the Left Bank. In this delightful book, Carhart describes his life as an American expatriate who learns that one does not simply walk into a Paris shop and ask to buy a used piano. His initial attempts meet with blank stares, but as he develops a relationship with the owner and acquires the proper introduction, a rich world of pianos and shared human bonds are revealed to him. Would that Signs of Life were the Book Shop on the Left Bank of Mass Street!

After a horrible loss in our lives, there are no quick steps to recovery. In A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows Through Loss, we learn that the loss cannot be recovered from; we will never be the same, and cannot “get over it”. Actually, getting over it should not be the goal. So how do we live after our loss, and how do we embrace life again? Can we grow through it? Is that possible? In A Grace Disguised we accompany Jerry Sittser, professor of Theology and Philosophy at Whitworth University on his journey through pain and doubt, and back to faith, peace and joy, while learning how to apply his insights to our experiences. God’s grace may be disguised, but there is a grace given by God to those who trust Him in their suffering.

What are the ‘spiritual disciplines’? We know, as believers, that we are to seek a spiritually disciplined life and a closer relationship with God, but it is often overwhelming to consider how to achieve it. Richard Foster’s book, Celebration of Discipline gives us a wonderful look at the disciplines, organizing them in a way that makes them understandable and achievable. He begins with the inward disciplines of meditation, prayer, fasting, and study. He moves on to the outward disciplines of simplicity, solitude, submission, and service, and ends with a section on the corporate disciplines of worship, confession, guidance, and celebration. This is not a book that you will read once – it is an indispensable tool that you will pick up again and again as you travel the spiritual journey towards heaven.